Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

General discussion

My Laptop can't find Seagate External HD - 300GB anymore

Jan 12, 2006 12:18PM PST

Yesterday it was working perfectly... I was copying stuff back and forth (I bought a new VAIO VGN-FJ170, (XP Home) and setting up the new machine, transferring all my data). Turn on, turn off when not needed, everything was perfect...

Today, my laptop can't seem to find the Seagate anymore...

a) Device manager doesn't show any problems with any ports;
b) I unplugged the Firewire, and connected through USB, same results (after a while of the Mouse "Hour-glassing", it flashed a brief message "YOur external drive may have propblems...
c) Unplugged and plugged into my old machine, VAIO too (WinME), and now i got really scared, as the my old machine couldn't locate the drive either.
d) Unplugged everything again, rebooted, etc... all the hoopla in various combintations and sequences - same result.
e) Finally placed a call to Seagate, a Rep asked me to try the Device Manager again, and concluded that the "what-his-name" chip is probably dead. And suggested one of the 2 options:

Option1: Call the Data Recovery Dept, which would charge an arm and leg to recover... or
OPtion2: Try the warranty Dept.

My luck (with the help of Mr. Murphy) has it that, as i found in my receipts, I bought the Seagate 300GB on Jan. 08, 2005, exactly 1 year and 3 days ago...

So, given that, and given the priceless value of the data, and years of work on the Disk, what do I do?

Q1: Is there anyway to replace or jerry-rig the Chip, even if only to get my data out...?
Q2: Alternatively, Is it feasible to try to just take the disk out and put it in a different enclosure or adapter to make it readible?
Q3: It gave me a whole new perspective re: a strategy to backup my files in the future... What do you gurus do? How do you make sure you never lose your stuff...

Do I have to buy 2-3 separate drives and keep 3 copies of the same files? Do I regularly backup my files on several DVD-RWs?

Oh yeah, when I turn on the Seagate, it lights up normally, as if it's OK, the blue light and everything, quietly hums, so it doesn't look or feel or smell like somethig major happened inside...

Is there anyone that I call and ask for an advice (among you guys and gurus, NOT the customer support, as they were pretty useless)???

Thanks.

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Alternatives...
Jan 16, 2006 11:42AM PST

While figuring out how to recover my data from the dead drive, what is the best way to keep my current backed up? Otgher than burning several DVD-RW-s?

Any suggestions?

Thanks.
NomadEnt

- Collapse -
If you don't have any luck getting it going 'as is'...
Jan 16, 2006 2:22PM PST

Can you tell if it's spinning up ?

It might work if you put it another external enclousre or

you cold pull the external case apart, remove the hard drive and add it as a second hard disk drive in any system you can (not as the boot drive) and see if you can get the data off to another HDD. You'll probably have to connect it to an up to date system with all the patches so you'll get access to the entire 300GBs.

Better think about another way to backup your stuff...externals are decent for a backup but a real no no for your only copy of your data. I've got mine on drive 0 partition 2, drive 1 partition 2 and an external HDD.

Let us know.

- Collapse -
Seagate 300GB External HDD crap...
Aug 6, 2006 9:38AM PDT

OK, update...

Bought an enclosure at CompUSA, disassembled my Seagate drive (the drive is OK, but the "middle-man" chip bruned out, as I was told by S. customer service), put in the drive in the new enclosure... Plugged in... XP can't auto-install, or update the drive... It recognizes a "Storage device is plugged in", but doesn't go beyond that...

What do I do?
HEEEELP.
Thanks

- Collapse -
Sure the enclosure lets you 'see' a 300GB HDD ?
Aug 6, 2006 11:48AM PDT

Which enclosure did you get ? How was the HDD jumpered ?

Not all enclosures are equal ....but most today should let your system see a 300GB USB external drive. Was the drive visible under Control Panel/Admin Tools/Computer Management/Disk Management ?

VAPCMD

- Collapse -
update
Aug 6, 2006 12:00PM PDT

Thanks for your help..
I got the CompUSA USB 2.0 3.5 inch Enclosure (The house brand), for $29.99. Everything snaps and fits well...

After several attempts, when I finally gave up and unplugged the Drive (in the new ecnlosure), it was VERY hot, don't know if it's normal or not...

My Main goal is to get my data out...
When failing to detect, I followed the prompt, went to Device Manager, and clicked the UNiversal Serial Bus Controllers - it shows a "USB Mass Sotrage Device", with a yellow "Exclamation point"... Double click - message: "Can't start the device", click Troubleshoot - it says "Code-10"...

disassembled everything... put the drive back into the Seagate case (hoping some miracle happened)... plugged in... power's on, seems like something is humming (soft vibration to the touch), but I don't think it's the hard disk spinning... that's about it... Not a single hit that my laptop is seeing it...
Note: From the Seagate box (unlike the Compusa Enclosure), it is connected to the computer via Firewire... but I don't think it's the problem...

I'd love to buy you dinner if you help me out... hehe
Thanks anyway

- Collapse -
Best approach is to hook the hard drive up to a desktop
Aug 7, 2006 1:16PM PDT

system as a secondary drive. Then you eliminate the external enclosure, the USB cable and the system USB ports. Note the system will have to be fairly new with XP SP2 or Win2K with SP4 to recognize any HDD over 137GBs.

Let us know how it turns out.

VAPCMD